A FORMER aircraft engineer who flew on massed bombing missions over Berlin and Nuremburg has died aged 84.

Family and friends packed into Sedgefield Methodist Church earlier this week to pay their last respects to John Petch.

Mr Petch, of Hadleigh Close, Sedgefield, flew with an Australian squadron as their flight engineer, mainly in Lancasters with RAAF 460 Squadron.

His first bombing mission was to Berlin, a night-time operation lasting more than seven hours. The squadron sent 22 crews and lost two of them.

He was also on the ill-fated Nuremberg raid in March 1944, from which 108 planes failed to return.

His friend, John Forsythe, said: "This particular raid grieved him a lot and, being a sensitive man, the memories of the massed bombing raids bothered him until he died.

"He had personal experience of the massed 1,000-plane bombing raids which obliterated so many German cities."

After the war, Mr Petch became a well-respected carpet fitter at a shop in Spennymoor.

He was an active Methodist and helped organise the church swimming club. He also helped the RC St Vincent de Paul Society.